Social exclusion

There is a need to recognise the role of social isolation in people’s experience of poverty, and to find ways of constructing a basic internationally comparable indicator for it, according to a new working paper by researchers at the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative.

The paper presents a working definition of social isolation; emphasises the relevance of isolation in poverty analysis; and proposes indicators to measure social connectedness that could be incorporated into a multi-topic household survey.

There’s a story that we tell ourselves about poverty and digital exclusion: the poorest people are digitally excluded; digital exclusion perpetuates poverty: therefore, getting people online will help lift them out of poverty. Lyndsey Burton assesses the evidence.

This conceptual note explores the complex relationship between poverty and social exclusion and mental health problems in terms of how we might measure poor mental health, and in how we might assess the direction of causality: does poverty, or social exclusion, cause poor mental health, or does poor mental health lead to poverty and social exclusion? The PSE research has used the well-validated instrument, the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ) 12, widely used to indicate presence or absence of symptoms of what are often described as ‘common mental disorders’, which will enable comparison with findings from other research in the UK and elsewhere.

Children from economically deprived families are more likely to be socially excluded as adults, finds a study from the Centre for Longitudinal Studies.

The study involved analysing data from more than 7,000 members of the 1970 British Cohort Study, and tracking six risk factors: poor physical and mental health; lack of emotional support from friends and family, and of trust in others; little or no interest or engagement in politics; having a low income, debts, or not having savings; limited access to good-quality public services; and being unemployed.

This working paper provides a review of the qualitative evidence base relating to the experience of poverty and social exclusion in the UK for which to date few systematic reviews exist. Its principal objective is to identify gaps in the current evidence base in order to inform the design and conduct of the Phase II Qualitative Research of the PSE 2011, ‘Understanding Experiences of Low Income During Recession’. It is also intended that the review will act as a resource for further aspects of PSE UK research.

The idea that if poverty is relative it will always be with us is a common misconception, argues John Veit-Wilson. 'Relative poverty' can be abolished if no one has fewer resources than needed to achieve that society’s minimum standards.

The legacy of ideas and evidence left by sociologist Peter Townsend (who died in 2009) remain 'profoundly relevant' in 21st century Britain, according to a new report from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation.

The JRF study draws on a large new dataset, Understanding Society, to explore the relationship between poverty and social participation highlighted in Townsend's work.

There are marked variations in people's access to essential services in Europe, hampering their ability to participate fully in society, according to a new study published by the European Commission.

The study draws on 2009–2010 data included in the EU-SILC (Statistics on Income and Living Conditions) for four areas: healthcare, public transport, banking and postal services, and childcare. In each case it defines access in terms of both affordability and the convenience of the location from which services are provided.

'Shocking' inequalities have been revealed in Scottish society, in a state-of-the-nation report from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation. A boy born in a wealthy area of Scotland will live 14 years longer than a boy born into poverty, it finds.

The report is the sixth in a series of poverty assessments for Scotland, the previous one being in 2008. It assesses a wide range of indicators including those relating to unemployment, education and health.

14 million people in the UK were at risk of poverty and social exclusion in 2011, according to a new report from the Office for National Statistics. The report also looks at how the UK compares with other EU countries on a range of poverty indicators, and at recent trends over time.

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PSE:UK is a major collaboration between the University of Bristol, Heriot-Watt University, The Open University, Queen's University Belfast, University of Glasgow and the University of York working with the National Centre for Social Research and the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency. ESRC Grant RES-060-25-0052.